A Different Ending
by 002219
Summary: In 'Sparks Liner High', Shirou Emiya realizes a single, near-meaningless paradox between what he was told and what he is doing. To be precise, the limit to his projection capabilities. What could come from this realization? Warning: Previous knowledge of End 38: "Sparks Liner High" is required before reading.


_This story follows the Saber Alter Fight "Sparks Liner High". It is an alternate interpretation as to what happened after Crane Wing Three Chains._

* * *

_In an isolated cavern, a red-haired man stood with two swords; one black, and one white._

_He arrived with a friend; a black-haired magus who continued onward. The red-haired man stayed behind to fight the black, blonde swordsman who barred entry._

_It ended with the red-haired man's victory. He had spent all of his remaining sanity to do so, however. Seven minutes was all that stood between the swordswoman and her recovery. Seven minutes was all that stood from the black-haired magus' death._

* * *

I won.

I beat Saber in one-on-one combat.

-I feel sleepy. I beat Saber, so _ only needs to defeat _ and free _her_, right?

-But wait. What about the purple haired woman? She's _her_ Servant, wasn't she? Wouldn't she try to defeat _, as well?

That's bad. _ can't win against a Servant.

But what can I do? I reached my limit.

-Limit?

_If you remove the cloth and use Projection even once, you will certainly die._

She told me that. But-

_If you want to live to old age, become a great enough magus to match the arm. That way, you can suppress it even without the Shroud._

-That man. He said I can control it once I'm skilled enough, right?

But he didn't say whether or not I have reached that 'great enough' level. What if I already had? From what I remember, he often manipulates people by leaving out facts, but otherwise is perfectly honest.

…Damn.

I opened my eyes. The black swordsman is still alive. I look at my hands. The white and black blade had shattered.

I look into my mind. What I saw was surprising.

I had thought that I wasted all of my remaining mind to kill her. But,

I'm still thinking.

_- Six Blades._

_Each held firmly between knuckles_. What were they called?

- Black Keys.

I assimilated the experience and fighting skill from the arm. They are now Emiya Shirou's, just as they had been Archer's.

I projected the Black Keys. I don't even know the limit to my power anymore.

Yes, that's right. They said that I would die projecting one more weapon. I had projected a full three more after that, and this is my fourth.

-I don't care. I have to save _. I can't die yet.

I walked over to the blonde, pale swordsman in black armor. She looked back up at me. She knows she will die.

I stabbed her.

_The black-haired magus ran through the rocky field, cutting through the shadows her blood sister sent at her. The silver-haired girl was dumbstruck. Each of those beasts can take on an individual Servant._

_Yet here, her sister was cutting them down like nothing. She can't stand it anymore. The black-haired girl had taken everything from her- their parents' affection, the house they once lived in, the things they played together with, and above all, the man she loved._

_And now, she is about to take the last two things she had left: her vengeance, and her life._

_She would not let that happen. Not again. Never again._

Just before I reached the exit, there, standing with her blindfold off, a purple-haired woman stood.

"Get out of my way," I snarled at her.

"_"

Did she actually respond?

-I don't care. I look into my mind.

What's the most recent blade I've seen?

That black and red sword. The one that was once holy, now ravaged with bloodlust.

…Yes. Even if I am only faking these blades, _I_ am the owner of these mimicries.

Even if it's an unoriginal sword-

I am nothing more than a sword that swings itself in battle.

Without another word, we charge at each other, the black void above us, a twisted mockery of the yellow sun.

* * *

_Medusa was silent as she fought with the red-haired man. She was naturally quiet, but this time, it wasn't so much personal preference than actual necessity._

_The boy was fast. The boy was strong._

_Blades stuck out from his body, but no blood was spilled. His attacks were accurate and brutal, and she wondered, 'Was this the true power of the unassuming, kind and polite boy I had conversed with casually before this night?'_

_She narrowed her eyes and dodged another slash. It would have cut her head off if she hadn't._

_It wasn't just the black blade he wielded, though that contributed greatly. It was his numbed senses, the ones that allowed him to move without being paralyzed by her Mystic Eyes. The ones that didn't even react to her blows and slashes._

_Medusa can tell- the boy isn't seeing anything. His body was looking through a broken mirror- an imitation of human eyes._

_She twisted her chains, lashing out her silver knife. It caught the boy's hands. He did not blink, did not flinch. Instead, he twisted his arm backward and dragged her towards him._

* * *

_ flew towards my direction. I can see her trying to locate a rock surface to redirect herself.

I can't have that. She's an enemy. She must die.

I swung the blade down on the ground in front of me. The explosion it resulted staggered _, breaking her concentration.

-Now.

I look into the experience I assimilated from _'s arm.

Two words.

"_Break- EX-"_

_'s eyes widened. "BELLERO-" she desperately shouted.

"-CALIBUR!"

"-PHON!"

The true names were uttered.

Her attack came first. Had these swords did not sprout out from my body, I would surely have been killed. Instead, the force knocked me down, not enough to kill, but enough to disorient.

And my foe was engulfed with a corrupting, overwhelming dark light.

I didn't know whether or not I won. I didn't have enough prana to use the sword's full capability- not even half of it hit _. But I don't care. I lost a lot already.

My sword and shield, she who had sworn to protect me.

My ideal, the thing that had kept me together all these years.

My arm, which is now foreign to me.

* * *

_My body is made of swords._

* * *

…No.

* * *

_Iron is my blood, and glass is my heart._

* * *

…Lies.

* * *

_I have walked through countless battlefields,_

* * *

…And today, the unlimited will end.

* * *

_Not once had I retreated, nor once had I been victorious._

* * *

…Then by the next dawn, victory will be ours.

* * *

_So I stand, alone, on this hill of swords…_

* * *

…And look: the hill is gone.

* * *

_Awaiting one's arrival, I have no regrets…_

* * *

…She had already arrived.

* * *

_This is my once and future path:_

* * *

-She will be my happiness.

* * *

_Unlimited Blade Works._

* * *

_Medusa was confused._

_The man who, against all odds, could have killed her, a Servant, simply walked past her ragged, gasping form._

_Was that all she was to him?_

_Inwardly, she chuckled despite the tense situation she was in. He treated people rougher than she expected._

_She could possibly heal. The overwhelming prana Sakura has attested to that. But it would take time._

_Seven minutes. Then she can limp. Can he succeed by then?_

* * *

I saw them fighting. Somehow, _ had gotten close enough to _her_ that they are now fighting in close range combat.

-But then…

A black cloth-like appendage shot out, and flung _ to the edge of the cliff.

I looked down on my right arm. I focused on a single blade, curved and sharp, distinct among the rest of the steely broad edges of the other, mundane swords. I willed that particular blade to exit my skin, dropping down to my palm.

I reinforced my legs. My broken vision can't see well, so I'll just follow the path to the biggest prana source in the area.

I ran. I ran, hard and fast, through the rocky surface.

The black appendages shot out, trying to hit me.

Almost by instinct, I dodged them, somehow being able to do so without even seeing.

_ looked scared. But behind that mask, there is also a faint glimmer of hope.

…She thinks I'm going to kill her. It's justified, I guess. But I won't. The curved blade clenched in my right palm is Rule Breaker.

I'm almost there. I don't remember your name. But I will be there. Hold on for just a few more seconds-

* * *

_Medusa stared as the red-haired boy stabbed her Master._

_Instead of the blood she expected to spurt out from the touch, however, she was instead treated to a very different sight._

_The black skin covering her shattered to pieces, blowing outwards._

_Rider could hardly believe it. He saved her. The boy who she thought would be her Master's demise saved her._

_She got to her feet._

_There was still a gap of five minutes until she fully recovers. But she had to save the black-haired girl._

_As compensation._

* * *

She's alive.

She's sleeping now, but she's alive.

I look around for my other ally.

-There.

The enemy is holding her.

…I don't even bother using swords anymore. I held my fists up.

What style was this?

What was it called?

__na_e._

It doesn't matter. The back of the neck and the lower torso: Two targets, and I have two fists to hit them.

"I…am not here… to fight…" she says.

I tilted my head in confusion.

"You… saved her," she explained. "I… have no more reason to… kill you."

Should I trust her?

"You… can't possibly take these two out of here in time. You still have to… destroy it… don't you?"

…She's right.

It turned around and departed for my next target.

One more objective. That's all that stands between my happiness and I.

* * *

_The boy left her. Medusa picked up the last girl and balanced both bodies on her back._

_Rocks were starting to fall in the cavern._

_It didn't matter. She was healed enough to be faster than mere dirt._

_Before running off, she turned back, her silver eyes softening in gratitude._

"_Thank you… Shirou."_

* * *

In the middle of the crater:

He stood.

Somehow, I remember his name. I forgot everyone's names, but I remember his.

"Kotomine Kirei."

"Yes. It seems we both managed to survive, Emiya Shirou."

I didn't ask him how he's alive. My mind, though it can still think, is breaking apart.

I've used one too many projections. I should have been more careful with its usage.

Now, I can't even do it anymore. My mind can take the strain, but projecting that black sword and Breaking it took up nearly all of my magical energy. What was left of it went to the creation of Rule Breaker.

I'll have to use my fists, then.

"Are you going to stand in my way?" I asked him.

"Yes. And you will most certainly stand in mine."

That is it. No more questions. It's just us now. Two men, fighting it out with the first weapon known to man: fists.

"Come on, Kotomine Kirei," I gave one final statement before blades overtake my throat, too. "Here, the weak shall perish, and only the strong thrive."

* * *

_Rider jumped from rock to rock, sweating heavily. She was almost to the entrance._

_Rocks fell around her. It was annoyingly dangerous, she mused. They formed quite the sharp floor on the cavern._

_She did not say anything, of course, but in her mind, she started praying for a miracle- so that they could survive the falling obstacles._

_Finally, she kicked one last time at the ground and launched herself forward._

_It was not enough._

_The weight of the two bodies on her back was vastly underestimated. But just as she started to fall, as she desperately clawed at the rock surface while sliding down towards the pointed rocks-_

_-she found and grabbed onto three hilts of three blades._

_Rider looked at where she was._

_It was the battleground between the red-haired magus and Saber Alter. The hilts she grabbed were likely the same ones Shirou wielded in his fight._

_Could it be that a projection can last so long without being overwritten by Gaia's laws?_

_She did not care. She pulled the blades free and placed one on her left arm, wrapping the two girls' arms around her neck. And Rider began climbing, evading falling rocks as she did so._

_And, finally, she reached the light._

* * *

I punch.

""Guh…?!""

He hit me at the same time. We both flinched and took a second to assess each other's conditions.

-This is bad. At this rate, it will end in a stalemate. I can't punch any harder, so-

* * *

_A red knight. Standing on the hill of swords. Spears, swords, and daggers were stabbed through his chest._

_It was a possible future._

_But-_

_The man looked back._

_And he smiled, and he shook his head._

_No, he meant. This is not your future. Not yet. You learned what I could not. This world has disappeared from you, now. But just because you can't access your Reality Marble, doesn't mean you can give up._

_Remember who it was you fought for. Remember what you swore to yourself._

* * *

""_-When I was a child, I wanted to be a hero.""_

* * *

Kirei Kotomine sped forward. He pulled his arm back-

* * *

_-Papa, why did you leave me?_

_A small girl. One with golden eyes, and silver hair._

_She was not there, of course. But the priest known as Kirei Kotomine replayed the memory, in his mind. To remind him of why he fought._

_When his wife died, he discovered that he was sad, but not because she died- he was sad because he could not see her die._

_He panicked at this thought, and sent his daughter to relatives. He did not care if the girl hated him. He was far too corrupted, far too distorted to take care of her._

_In a way, it was his method of showing her his kindness-_

_Kirei halted, for the briefest of moments. And in that instant, the red-haired man's fist shot forward._

* * *

I punch. My vision is beyond blurred. It was broken. But I can still hear my sword-sprouting arm speed forward.

* * *

_"I will be your shield, Shirou."_

_The boy remembered her. The blonde knight who was always there to protect him, no matter how inferior he was._

_-King Arthur._

_The Once and Future King, the King of Knights._

_The one he killed with his own hands._

* * *

The priest slammed his fist to my stomach.

"_uh...!?"

I was blown across the field. I don't feel any pain, but it still made me lose focus.

* * *

_Kirei remembered his wife._

_When he had tried to find a happiness in life, he thought that loving a woman would help._

_But it didn't. He tried to love her, so much, but his twisted nature allowed him only to be happy at her suffering._

_She truly did love him, she truly did understood him like no other, and she bore his child._

_Yet still, he wasn't able to love._

_"The things that bring people joy, means nothing to me."_

_That was the summary of his existence._

_"I could not love you," he said to her in her dying breaths._

_"No. I love you," she responded, just before taking her own life._

_Kirei cried. But it was not because of despair that his wife is dead-_

_It was despair that he could not kill her himself._

* * *

The man lumbered over to where I lay on the ground. A priest who uses a mimicry of Chinese martial arts. He reminds me so much of myself- just as he fakes a fighting style, I fake swords.

I stood up. The blades had already started appearing on my face. My left eye is already made of steel now. It didn't matter. I can't see with them anyway.

He stops in front of me.

I delivered a kick.

* * *

_The boy remembered the white-haired girl; his sister._

_"I'll be your ally, no matter what you do."_

_She had dispelled the stinging pain the red-haired man felt from the red knight's words. She had showed him the path he can take: not the path of a Punisher of Evil, not the path of a Protector of Justice, but the path of a man. A man who would go to any lengths to protect those he cares about._

_Love makes the world go 'round..._

* * *

It barely stopped him. Even as my leg hit his stomach, his right fist shot towards my neck.

It didn't stop me, either. But then-

* * *

_The priest remembered the golden-haired Servant- the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh._

_"What you see is what you desire," he said._

_Suffering. Despair. Torment. Kirei gave up on salvation, knowing he can never have joy if he tried to restrain himself._

_It was ironic, in a way. Had he actually been reading the Holy Bible he often preached of, he would have realized that there would always be room for forgiveness. That even one such as he could be saved, if he took the words 'atonement' to heart._

_But he didn't, and he continued his path. And ten years after he was revived by the Holy Grail, he met a boy who could have been the only one to understood the distortion he had, as they were both very similar. Both can only find happiness in others, the only difference being that the boy finds it by bringing joy, while the priest finds it only by bringing sorrow._

_"Rejoice, boy. For your wish shall be granted."_

_The priest's left fist hit the boy's stomach, at just the same moment the boy's right fist hit his head._

_Only Kirei dropped from the attack._

* * *

Kirei stayed on the ground. He did not get back up.

I walked over to the Grail. I'll have to project once more.

-But before I can, he spoke once more.

"Congratulations, Emiya Shirou," he said simply, his tone dismissive as usual. "You are the last Master standing."

I turned to him.

"I, Kirei Kotomine, supervisor of the Fifth Holy Grail War, declare you winner. Go forth, and fulfill your wish."

A twitch on his lips, and his eyes close for the final time.

I looked up, and I glared at the Grail. Can I do it? One last projection?

If I do it, my body will break down. My mind is at its breaking point, I am effectively blind, but I'm still alive, and, with proper healing, can go back to normal in a few days. Perhaps weeks, damage has never been this extensive before.

But if I project that thing… All that surviving part of me will die.

Then.

"No, Shirou. You won't be the one to seal it. That would be me."

_a…?

* * *

"I cannot determine the meaning, of sorrow that fills my heart..."

* * *

_Rider watched as the last of the falling rocks dropped._

* * *

"A fable of old, through it streaming, allows my mind no rest..."

* * *

_Without wasting any time, she jumped into the cavern, ready to bring back the man who stayed behind._

* * *

"The air is cool inside the gloaming, and gently flows the Rhein..."

* * *

_"_You said that, a big brother has to protect his little sister, right? I'm the big sister, so I have to protect my little brother."

* * *

_"The crest of the mountain is gleaming, in fading rays of sunshine..."_

* * *

No… _a…

* * *

_"The loveliest maiden is sitting, up there so wondrously fair..."_

* * *

"I'll show you a miracle. After all, it's the one everyone wanted to see."

* * *

_"Her golden jewelry is glistening, she combs her golden hair..."_

* * *

__ya. _lya. Illya. ILLYA!_

* * *

"She combs with a gilded comb, preening, and sings a song, passing time..."

* * *

_A new dawn arrived on Fuyuki City._

* * *

"It has a most wondrous, appealing, and powerful melodic rhyme..."

* * *

_The sun was bright, the skies clear, and the weather lovely._

* * *

"The boatman stands on his small skiff, enraptured with a wild ache..."

* * *

_And, walking from the underground cavern, four figures limped through the streets._

* * *

"Has no eye for the jagged cliff, his thoughts on the heights fear forsake..."

* * *

_Well, that isn't right. Two figures limped. Two more were carried behind them. They walked across streets, and arrived at the Emiya Residence._

* * *

"I think the waves will devour both boat and man, by and by..."

* * *

_When Taiga Fukimura saw the bloodied sights of her housemates, she panicked and to call the ambulance. They came in a few hours later, and the three young man and women were quickly taken to the hospital._

* * *

"And that, with her dulcet voiced power, was done by the Loreley..."

* * *

_All the while, Rider looked on, for once her attention divided between the red-haired magus and her own Master._

* * *

_Weeks passed._

_Life returns to normal. The absence of a priest in the church on the hill provoked a response from the Holy Church. A few days after Kirei's disappearance, a young female replaced him, a subject that circulated around the town._

_School was something that no one looked forward to, but as their duty as students, they were forced to attend. From that point onwards, the trio referred to each other only by their first names. They went through far too much for anything less.._

_The life of Shirou Emiya is one scarcely walked, and one scarcely remembered. This is the route he had chosen, the path he had nurtured, the path he had opened. Even if it is a path of thorns, he will continue walking onward, despite the loss of those precious treasures he once kept._

_Though there is nothing brilliant enough in life to make up for them, he would continue forward, until the time comes when he can accumulate enough joy to measure up to that which he killed, on that fateful day._

_And even if no one else remembers:_

_This was certainly a path carved and stabbed with swords._

* * *

It was one of the few times I visited the old man's grave.

He was my dad, but somehow, I found that I can't be bothered to visit very often.

I saw that there was another visitor, here at Ryuudouji. She was looking at another stone, one that lay right next to Kiritsugu's.

"Are you a relative of the priest?" I asked her. She looked up from her trance, and nodded.

"My name is Caren Hortensia. He was my father."

...Interesting. So he had a child.

"Did you know him?" she asks, turning her full attention to me.

I laughed and gave her a smile. "You have no idea..."

* * *

END


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